Trump fires Tillerson after visiting Nigeria

The United States President, Donald Trump, fired Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, on Tuesday after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran, replacing his chief diplomat with loyalist CIA Director, Mike Pompeo.

The biggest shakeup of Trump’s cabinet since he took office in January 2017 was announced by the president on Twitter as his administration works toward a meeting with the leader of North Korea, Reuters reports.

He states, “Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!”

Tillerson had visited Nigeria on the last leg of his official visits to Africa, and met President Muhammadu Buhari, during which they discussed issues of mutual interest to both countries.

The ex-Secretary of State had also warned Nigeria and the rest of Africa against accessing financial help from China.

Tillerson’s dismissal capped months of friction between the Republican president and the 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil Corp chief executive.

The tensions peaked last fall amid reports Tillerson had called Trump a “moron” and considered resigning. Tillerson never denied using the word.

Some foreign policy experts expressed dismay at the decision to swap out top diplomats so soon before the unprecedented meeting and worried that Pompeo would encourage Trump to scrap the Iran nuclear deal and be hawkish on North Korea.

Critics said the move would sow more instability in the volatile Trump administration and marks the departure of another moderate who sought to emphasise the United States’ strong ties to its allies amid Trump’s criticism. Last week, top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, quit after Trump announced trade tariffs that would affect US allies.

Trump chose the Central Intelligence Agency’s deputy director, Gina Haspel, to replace Pompeo at the CIA. A veteran CIA clandestine officer, Haspel is backed by many in the US intelligence community but is regarded warily by some in Congress for her involvement in the agency’s “black site” detention facilities.

Trump announced the changes in a morning Twitter post and later told reporters more about why he removed Tillerson.

“We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things,” Trump said. “When you look at the Iran deal: I think it’s terrible, I guess he thinks it was OK. I wanted to break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently.”

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